Under Loki's disbelieving, shocked gaze,
his beast companions were actually being controlled by Fang Huo with a bizarre longsword.
For Loki's sake, Fang Huo didn't let Rocks roast the beasts for food.
Instead, the beasts were all subdued by Fang Huo's seven star demon sword and turned into temporary mounts, galloping straight toward Ida's Underworld tavern.
"Why can you order them around?"
On the back of a giant lion, the injured Loki yelled himself hoarse.
These were his partners!
"Noisy!"
Fang Huo popped a jujube into his mouth, spat out the pit, and flicked it casually at Loki.
Boosted by the Momo Fruit's speed and size, it instantly left a huge lump on Loki's forehead!
"Itto!!"
Loki clutched his head and howled; the casual strike from this small human had broken his defense and hurt like hell.
"Zahahaha!! first mate, try a booger!"
"Maybe your booger cannon can be as mighty as my booger bomb."
Just then, Ganzi dug in his nose and blew a tree blocking the path to pieces with a booger bomb, excitedly comparing notes.
"Shut up, you disgusting brute!"
Stussy and Shimotsuki Furiko both scolded the smuggler with the foul technique.
"Ganzi, can't you pick something else for bombs!"
Even Rocks and Newgate couldn't stand the bomb moves Ganzi had invented.
It ruined the aura of the world's top pirate crew!
"Tch, my old man once killed a colossal sea beast with a single booger!"
Seeing the little golden-armored human scare beasts away with a booger, Loki spoke up proudly.
He'd heard the story from the royal guards.
Back when his father first sailed at forty-five, he already had the power to blow giant shark sea beasts to pieces with boogers.
Their royal bloodline was born mighty.
At just a few years old he'd beaten the Underworld beasts into submission.
"All of you shut the hell up!"
"Don't mention boogers—disgusting!"
Veins bulged on Fang Huo's forehead; he'd never develop such a nauseating move.
Still… if he used the Momo Fruit to super-size a booger cannon to bombard the Gorosei and the Gods Knights, it might have a strange effect.
Coating their immortal bodies in booger and snot, leaving them traumatized for life…
Fang Huo quietly buried the idea.
Such a technique would ruin his lofty image; he mustn't use it lightly.
—The group rode the beasts across half the Underworld before finally reaching the tavern Ida had built.
"I never thought such a warm place could exist in this frigid wasteland!"
At the sight of a stretch of green grass, the Rocks Pirates exclaimed.
Their luck had been poor—they hadn't landed here.
Fang Huo found the massive tavern oddly familiar.
He glanced back at Captain John.
After all, the future stubborn king Eustass Kid would be wiped out near this tavern by Red Hair Shanks along with Dorry and Brogy.
The Green-Oni Dorry and Red-Oni Brogy would sink Kid's pirate crew with a single classic "Hakoku" from this very shore.
"Mama! It's Underworld beasts!! Close the gate quickly!!"
Hajrudin, practicing swordplay on the shore, spotted the herd and rushed back into the tavern in a panic, slamming the door.
He couldn't understand—his father had warned and beaten those beasts, claiming this coast as his domain.
Why were they daring to show up here?
"What's going on!"
The "short" woman with big lips and freckles, Ida, gently comforted her son.
Spotting the beasts outside the window, she grabbed a huge axe.
She would never let them harm her child!
But soon she saw Loki on one beast's back.
And humans on the others!!
"No good! Loki's been kidnapped!!"
Imu never imagined Loki would ally with humans to attack them—she knew how proud and disdainful of humans he was.
So Loki couldn't possibly be mixing with humans.
There was only one truth: Loki had been captured by these humans!
In Ida's eyes, Loki was still just a child.
Losing to human pirates was only natural!
Even if Loki didn't accept her as "mother," maternal instinct made Ida fling the door open and charge out with her huge axe.
"Don't!! Mama!"
The fear in Hajrudin's eyes vanished; he dashed after Ida.
He wouldn't let anyone—or any beast—hurt his mother!
"Mamamama, Ida! Hajrudin! Long time no see!"
Charlotte Linlin quickly recognized her childhood friend Hajrudin.
Eleven years ago, while still in Elbaf's Sheep's House, she'd often played with giant Kids like Hajrudin and Gerd.
She also knew Ida, the gentle giantess who'd been kind to the human orphans of Sheep's House.
"You… demon Linlin!!"
Hajrudin couldn't recognize the grown Charlotte Linlin, but the sight of Sun Prometheus and her pink hair let him guess who she was.
In eleven years, he, a giant child, still looked boyish, yet Charlotte Linlin had already become an adult.
Such was the vast lifespan gap between giants and humans.
Ida's pupils shrank; most giants had heard of Charlotte Linlin's man-eating atrocities from the warrior who'd fled back from Sheep's Island.
Add to that her responsibility for Elder Jorl's death.
Now all Elbaf loathed this demon girl and forbade contact with Charlotte Linlin.
"It's me, Hajrudin!"
Charlotte Linlin stepped forward happily, but seeing Ida and Hajrudin instinctively step back, her expression dimmed.
As expected, they still hadn't forgiven her for accidentally killing Elder Jorl.
"wahaha!! Never thought Linlin knew Harald's little wife and other son!"
Rocks laughed—this world truly overflowed with fate and wonder.
Soon, though, Rocks noticed Harald's other son was far weaker than Loki, actually trembling.
He hadn't the slightest trace of Harald's heroic spirit.
Fang Huo flew from his beast and landed on Linlin's shoulder, steadying her emotions.
At that moment he spotted, in the emotionally shaken Charlotte Linlin, two strands of fortune he could siphon!
His pupils shrank—Sister Carmelo, hiding in Linlin's soul, was finally surfacing?
Without a word, Fang Huo activated the Luck-Luck Fruit and wildly drained the luck from that other consciousness!
'Sneaky Carmelo! I'll refine you in an instant!!'
Fang Huo exploded with power, stripping Sister Carmelo of every last ounce of fortune while readying the Gulp-Gulp Fruit to help Charlotte Linlin devour and fuse Carmelo's soul.